


Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair

by tigriswolf



Series: meme fics [25]
Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Mythology, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Nothing beside remains. Round the decay</i><br/><i>Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare</i><br/><i>The lone and level sands stretch far away</i> </p><p> </p><p> [After, all he has is time.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair  
> Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Shelley  
> Fandom: Avengers movieverse/Norse mythology  
> Warnings: post-apocalyptic, movie spoilers; AUish – all I know about Thanos I learned from wikipedia  
> Pairings: gennish  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 405  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: In the movie Tony says "And, Loki, he's a full-tilt diva... he wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a... monument built to the sky with his name plastered..." and I was immediately reminded of the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 
> 
> I would like something involving Loki based on this part of the poem: 
> 
> "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay  
> Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,  
> The lone and level sands stretch far away."
> 
> Perhaps involving the ruins of Jotenheim?

After, all he has is time. Asgard is burnt, Midgard barren, and Thanos turns his gaze to the remaining realms. All but Jötunheimr, and Helheimr - but Thanos will go there, eventually, kneel before the Lady of the Dead and offer the ash of eight realms as his sacrifice in her name.

Whether or not Hel will take his hand, Loki does not know. He does not care anymore. 

He has eternity, the only one left of everybody he’s ever known, and it is his fault. He has all the magic of nine realms, all the rage and jealousy and anguish – and none of it matters. 

There is no throne. But he has never wanted a throne.

 _In thanks, ally, I grant you your life_. Thanos’ hand had burned where it touched Loki’s face. His breath stank of desiccation and decay. Loki stared fearlessly into his eyes and Thanos grinned, the bones of a thousand worlds caught in his teeth. 

This was always coming, no matter what Loki did. This is Ragnarök, but not in a way even the All-Father or Heimdallr could have foreseen. 

Loki does not ask forgiveness. Instead, he goes to the place where, perhaps, all this could be said to have begun. The Bifrost is destroyed, but Loki never needed it. He takes a step and is on Jötunheimr, standing in the ruins of Laufey’s palace, ice and snow and nothing. 

Is this where it began? Where he made deals and arranged for jötnar to sneak into the All-Father’s home, where Thor started a war because Loki talked him into it, where Loki discovered his true nature – is this the place that led to Thanos? 

Jötunheimr is Thanos’ gift to Loki, in all its grandeur. Loki laughs, staring out over the ice. He laughs until his stomach hurts, until tears freeze on his face, until he wears the shape of his birth again. 

He laughs while Thanos burns Ālfheimr, scorches Vanaheimr, razes Svartálfaheimr, chars Niflheimr. Múspellsheimr, of course, he turns into a solid block of ice and shatters into stardust. 

Hel’s realm is left untouched. All the souls there scream, all the souls from all the realms, and Loki listens, eyes closed, face to the coldest of winds. 

Thanos kneels before Hel, and she takes his hand, and it is Ragnarök. 

Loki touches the ice, all that remains of Jötunheimr, and does not ask forgiveness. There is no one left to ask.


End file.
